Good acting, the mean side kicks were very real to life, big boss kind of sissy but good movie

Cheaply made in New York and cast with (to me) unknowns, this short black-and-white crime drama is true noir. Hand-held camera, wild score, grainy shots of streets after dark, sordid rooms, vicious low-lifes, evil women, endless betrayals, deceptions, beatings and killings, an incorruptible and indefatigable hero and a glamorous foreign woman who turns out to be both genuine and his. What more can you want?

Good thing this wasn't a buddy picture, or it would have been called C-Men.

A low-budget crime drama with a convoluted plot which often makes no sense. You can be forgiven for thinking they made this one up as they went along. Stars Dean Jagger. A fine character actor in films like "Twelve O'clock High," here he is badly miscast as a hard-bitten government cop. John Carradine appears in a minor role. Uneven pacing and mediocre direction complete the picture.
Not much of a flick, nevertheless it's worth viewing as an example of how the Production Code often was ignored following WW2, resulting in tougher and more explicit crime films like this and "Pickup on South Street." It also is an example of realism being enhanced through on-location shooting, which didn’t get into full-swing until after the war.
Watchable print appears to be a VHS transfer. If you view it with the GOM or VLC players, reducing the contrast helps.